Irish 'horseburger' meat facility blames 170 tons of Polish meat

DUBLIN (AP) - The Irish meat company at the center of Europe's "horseburger" scandal has blamed the contamination of its hamburger patties on the purchase last year of 170 tons of meat imported from Poland.

The ABP Food Group says it purchased the Polish meat last year marked as "beef" from an Irish meat trader, McAdam Food Products, and the product was used by its Silvercrest food processing facility to make frozen beef burgers.

The company said Tuesday in a statement to The Associated Press that "while Silvercrest purchased these beef products in good faith, horse DNA originating in Poland was present in some of these products."

Poland says its own investigations of slaughterhouses identified by Ireland as suppliers to ABP have produced no evidence they shipped horsemeat.

(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)